Boondocking vs Overlanding vs Moochdocking - what's what?

What are boondocking, overlanding and moochdocking? We have our ideas here

What is the difference between overlanding and boondocking? What is overlanding? And what is boondocking? We have our ideas here. 

First of all some background. The RV Industry Association and campground company KOA both have surveys that show an ever-increasing interest in overlanding and boondocking. We prefer boondocking most of the time to traditional campgrounds and have configured our own Rockwood Mini Lite 2506FK to be an outstanding off-grid camper. 

According to some recent surveys over a quarter of new RV buyers want the RV they purchase to be able to effectively camp without hook-ups. Let’s look at that at the end of all this. 

What is boondocking?

Boondocking at an Alpaca farm through Harvest Hosts

Essentially boondocking is camping without hookups. While the term initially came from camping in the boondocks, or in remote places, it has morphed into becoming much more common to camp in places that are less remote but still rely on the systems built into your RV. 

For example, almost all RVs have a complete water system including water heater as well as a furnace so that you can camp without hooking them up at least for a day, sometimes much longer. 

In many cases using an RV to boondock isn’t much different than using it in an RV park or more developed area. Lots of boondocking opportunities are available right in the middle of cities and towns. Many businesses offer boondocking sites in local parking lots so you don’t have to go far to have a great boondocking experience.

An example of this would be camping at a Harvest Hosts location where your RV has to be fully self-contained but few, if any, services are provided. 

As it has evolved boondocking doesn’t necessarily require any specialized vehicle. You don’t have to go out deep in the woods or far out in the desert, although you certainly can. So whatever you’re RVing with might be all you need depending on your preferences. 

You can also take advantage of things like the Bureau of Land Management or national forests or other public lands.

We have a whole resource center on boondocking including how to find great places and ways to save money while camping. 

What is overlanding?

Overlanding is more long-distance travel, often across diverse or challenging terrain. This can require vehicles that are more capable of tackling tough roads or surfaces and are more ruggedized to be able to do so. 

These vehicles are often more capable of spending extended time off the grid but some of them rely on an understanding of the environment you’re heading to and incorporating that into the overall plans. 

For example, many of the vehicles we saw at Overland Expo have outdoor showers and have things like composting toilets. This type of system demands a respect for the places you’re going but also a better understanding of these systems in order to use them. 

There is also a greater degree of self-sufficiency in heading to more remote areas just because challenges brought about by the travel means you’re not just calling roadside assistance to get you out. 

Don’t forget moochdocking

What a lot of us are doing nowadays is more moochdocking - using our fully self-contained RVs to camp in a place other than a developed campground. This really is a more accurate way to describe what we like to do. 

For example, we go to a relative’s home and spend a day or two on their property. No money changes hands but our RV has to be able to fully support us. That means water, heat, and lighting. 

Followers of ours will know that we also had our RV’s power system fully upgraded by ABC Upfitters. This advance battery and solar system does allow us to run the air conditioner and any other item in the RV without needing hook-ups.  

Why boondocking?

Saving money is one of the reasons more and more RVers are hoping to take advantage of boondocking - campgrounds are becoming ever more expensive and while many of them offer elaborate services such as water parks or rope challenges, many of us just use the the campground as a home base for other activities. 

Often the campground is nothing more than a hotel room for our RVs so all those fancy services they offer have no value to us. Obviously there are always different reasons and even one adventure can include a variety of stays from boondocking to moochdocking to staying at elaborate RV parks - you may just want to rest one night but are looking for more resort-like services the next. 

But as campground fees go up and up, spending the money to stay at a campground when you already have all the systems you need built into your RV just doesn’t always make sense. 

Boondocking versus Overlanding

One of my favorite reasons to go boondocking is to avoid some of the expense of campgrounds. There are also experiential reasons - many of the Harvest Hosts locations we stay at offer something much more than just a place to sleep. Further, some of the campgrounds we’ve stayed in really pack the RVs in to the point that you can barely open a slide room and forget about your awning. 

We recently stayed at a KOA whose sites were so narrow that I had to pull the slide in on my RV so I could open a baggage door. I kid you not. 

One more - brewdocking

This may not be something you’ve heard of before but it’s something we absolutely love. Brewdocking! Essentially it’s boondocking or moochdocking at a brewery. We find a lot of these through the Harvest Hosts program but we sometimes also call local breweries and see if we can moochdock, er, brewdock on their property. Typically they’re pretty happy to have us because, well, I love a good local brewery so hoisting a few pints and grabbing a meal is my absolute pleasure. 

Know before you go

If you do choose to go camping off the grid one way to find out how long you can stay out and what your RV is capable of is to go to a developed campground but don’t hook your RV up. Then utilize the systems in the RV and see how long you can do so before you actually need to hook up. 

While we have a great power system the holding tanks on our own RV are what brings us in so we have to be cognizant of water usage and practice these water-saving tips. 

Also know that each situation is different. For example if you plan on using services like Harvest Hosts you’ll need to have an RV that is fully self-contained meaning the kitchen and bathroom are inside the RV. So those teardrops with the outside kitchen don’t work there, but they may be exactly what you want if you’re overlanding. 

You can save a lot of money or just have better experiences. But if you prefer RV parks, that’s fine too. No matter what your style the important thing is to master it so your experience truly will be StressLess Camping.